Mung Bean Hash

Vegetarian dish, and a great way to use up that bag of dried mung beans I know you have sitting in the back of your cupboard.

1 Cup dry mung beans
2 cups diced potatoes
2 carrots, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
6-8 mushrooms, sliced

Seasonings to taste:
Balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
season salt
olive oil


Cook 1 cup of dry mung beans according to package directions. (Usually boil them in twice the amount of water for 10 minutes and simmer for an hour)
Add olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar


Saute' the rest of the ingredients in olive oil in one big pot.
Add one ingredient at a time according to how long it takes to cook.
Like, potatoes first, then celery, carrots, onion, bell pepper, mushroom in that order.

Season it to taste.

Normally, I would be tempted to throw this all into a crock pot. However, the vegetables are so much better when they're not over-cooked and still crunchy.
Also, I liked to dice everything, so every ingredient is the same size. It seems more appealing that way.

Lemon Chicken Marinade

Got this recipe from cooks.com

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor until liquids are fully combined and garlic is well pureed. Mixture should be opaque and fairly thick. Pour over chicken and marinade for 4-8 hours.

This has a good taste. I marinated boneless chicken breasts and broiled them in the oven. Afterward, I made salad wraps with them.

Salmon and Potatoes

You'll have to use your own cooking experience for the details on this one. In parenthesis is what I personally did, and it turned out pretty good.

Preheat oven to (350)
Slice potatoes and add to bottom of 9x9 pan
Season to taste (salt, pepper, garlic)
Chop up onions and cover potatoes
Splash it with Braggs Liquid Aminos
Drizzle with olive oil
Cover with a handful of chopped fresh parsley
Place salmon filets on top
Season to taste (mine was preseasoned from TJ's)
Bake for 20-30 minutes

Potato Moussaka

Moussaka is the dish in the back.

If you can score yourself a pound of ground lamb, and an eggplant, you're likely to have all the other ingredients in the kitchen already.

I always order Moussaka at the Greek restaurant. Mine tasted a little more American, because I used potatoes instead of bread crumbs to line the bottom of the pan.

1 small eggplant
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
olive oil
1/4 tsp garlic powder, or one clove of fresh
1/2 cup red wine
1 small can tomato paste
1 large potato (or 3 slices of bread, crumbled)
1/4 cup white cheese (I used Chihuahua cheese, even though it's Mexican)
White Sauce (recipe follows)
Parmesian cheese

Brown mean in oil
add onion, green pepper, salt & pepper
Add wine, tomato paste 1/2 of cheese

Cut eggplant in 1/4 inch slices, quarter slices, brown in oil
Bread crumbs on bottom of 9 inch pan (or thinly sliced potatoes)
Eggplant goes next, then put the meat mixture on top.

White Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup milk
salt, pepper & nutmeg
remaining cheese
2 beaten eggs

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add each ingrediant, one by one after the previous ingredient is mixed well.
Stir until thick.
Pour half of the sauce over your eggplant and potatoes. Then add the meat. Pour the rest of the sauce on top.